A Latin American wave took dance music scenes across the UK and Europe by storm towards the end of the '90s. This changing tide was led by a skinny, unassuming boy from São Paulo's East Side called Marcos. As a teenager, he learned basic English by reading record covers his mom gave him—the only gifts he asked his parents for. Twenty years later, under the moniker DJ Marky, he was on stage for British TV show Top of the Pops, performing his and XRS's drum & bass track "LK" (featuring Stamina MC) with so much energy that he accidentally hit the turntable needle. This almost inaudible slip was an undeniable byproduct of the powerful verve Marky's infamous for harnessing behind the decks.

Already a staple in the blossoming São Paulo electronic music scene in the early 2000s, Marky made a name for himself in Brazil by being a reckless dance floor selector. He meshed hardcore dubplates with drum & bass tunes, shifting from liquid textures to powerful thumps by flipping his turntables upside-down—a signature move. He started this highly risky but unique way of DJing by wedging a soda pop lid under the turntable arm, shocking people on dance floors at home and catching the attention of UK bookers and promoters.

Over the past two decades, he has never stopped exploring how the turntables can be utilised as a club music instrument, whether at his seminal party Marky & Friends or in mainstay venues and festivals like the Warehouse Project and Tomorrowland. Marky's extensive musical repertoire and knack for performance helped put Brazil on the clubbing map, and he continues to stun audiences today. We spoke with him about the techniques that paved his way to fame—like out-of-tempo beat juggling—the club music landscape and his impact on electronic music in Brazil and beyond.

Let's start with your first days of DJing. What was it like in Brazil back in the '90s?

People should understand that the road for Brazilian DJs was paved before me thanks to DJs like Grego, Irai Campos, Mister Sam, Silvio Muller, Ricardo Guedes. Then there's my generation: Maumau, Marquinhos MS, Renato Lopes. And now there are younger DJs, and I hope to see something that brings novelty, something that could be as shocking as what I've done.

Why was your style of DJing shocking at that time?

The great majority of clubs used to play dance music in Brazil, but at that time, the rave movement and strands like Belgium techno were blossoming in Europe. This music was different. It had loads of samples, and everything was sped up. It was more like hardcore. We liked groups like Shades of Rhythm, Bizarre Inc, Prodigy. I recall the song that got me into this music was "Anasthasia" by T99. When I first heard it, I was like, "Man…this track has blown my mind." I started to play this kind of music. No one was playing it back then.

How did you start DJing?

I started really young. I wanted to be a drummer. My father was a musician. He used to play guitar, bass, banjo and he was old school. He used to tell me: "If you want to learn, learn it by yourself." I wanted to be a drummer since I saw the music video for "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police. I always thought the fusion of reggae and rock by The Police was amazing. I've seen this also with the Brazilian group Paralamas do Sucesso. I always thought that the Paralamas' drummer, João Barone, was the Brazilian Stewart Copeland.

Soon I realized I couldn't become a drummer myself because my mother had no money and it would take me a while to make it a job and get my own money. But I had a lot of vinyl records. My friends used to ask for toys as presents, and I would ask for records. It was 1983 when a friend of mine told me, "The thing now is to be a DJ." I was like, "What's that?" And he said: "You have to overlap tracks." He had a Philips turntable, and eventually, he gave it to me.

It was a belt-drive turntable, I assume?

Yes, it was! And it had only one rotation speed, 33 RPM. I got another turntable with only 45 RPM speed, so I played singles on the left side and LPs on the right side.

What about beatmatching?

I have no idea how I used to do it! But that was what I had, so I had to get used to it. Since it was a belt-drive, I had to push up the record a bit when it started to play. I remember that at the time I saw the music video for "Buffalo Girls" with Malcom McLarem on TV. It was the first time I saw a Technics turntable, something that was not common in Brazilian clubs. Many had only tape players, so I learned to play on those also. I sold one of my turntables to buy a tape player and started to play with this and the other turntable.

How old were you?

I was 9 or 10 years old.

When did you start playing in clubs? How was the DJ scene in São Paulo back then?

In the beginning of the '90s, the DJ movement was getting big in São Paulo. There were a couple of radio shows focused on dance music. There was also this DJ championship in a club close to my neighborhood, Show Business, and I won it. I started playing there, but the owner fired me eventually because I knew my set by heart. I played the same set for like two, three months. Then I realized that I had to feel the crowd, take risks. This is a mantra that I follow until today.

And after this first experience you started playing in big venues and clubs in São Paulo, right? What about the first time in the UK?

Yes, I used to play at the Lov.e Club, in São Paulo, and we wanted to throw a party called Movement, a party that was happening in the UK. Then, DJ Patife went to England with a VHS tape of me and other DJs performing to show to the Movement crew. When Oliver [Brown] and Edo [van Dujin] saw me, they said: "We want to see this guy playing!" Edo came to Brazil with Jumpin' Jack Frost, then later we booked Bryan Gee and he told me that he would book me to play in London.

You were one of the first Latin American DJs to play in the UK, and you were the first Brazilian DJ to play at Glastonbury, in 2002. How was that?

When I was invited to play at the Glastonbury I had one thing in mind: how much are they going to pay me? I had no idea what Glastonbury was! But when they told me it was a special gig, a festival, I was down with it. And the result was amazing! There were other shows that were really special to me, like the back-to-back with Zinc at Homelands or my set at Boomtown. I've played at a couple of great festivals, but my passion for clubs is bigger. I like clubs because I have full control of the dance floor and the audio. At festivals, you need to be more flexible and play more hits. In clubs, you have the crowd.

Do you practice a lot?

No. Since my son was born 16 years ago, I haven't practiced. When I started, my life was DJing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I loved that and I didn't care about anything else. I really wanted to be the best DJ. After a while, I started to play in better clubs, I got famous, I started dating a lot of women. I met the mother of my son, and when he was born, I realized life was not just DJing.

How many records do you have?

Thirty.

Thousand?!

Yes.

Are you kidding?

No. I'm serious. And I remember the story of each one of them. Music was always a soundtrack for me. For example: you used to listen to a song with a girl you liked and then you'd break up, so you would always remember it.

Have you ever thought that your songs could stick with people like that? "LK," for instance, is a milestone for a generation.

Yes, a lot of people say to me they started to enjoy drum & bass because of me, because of my song. "LK" stands for “liquid kitchen.” I went to my place and started to listen to some records, and I played this EP by Jorge Ben that belonged to my parents. I really enjoyed the guitars in the song "Carolina Carol Bela," so I made a sample out of it, sequenced the drums and took it to the studio.

There are also DJs who say they started playing after seeing one of my sets. I get really happy when I hear that. This means I'm doing a great job. But a lot of people don't see that behind [the performance] there's a lot of effort. It's not just about creating a vibe on the dance floor, it's about love and devotion to music. If you go to my place, you will find records by Miles Davis, Novos Baianos, Jorge Ben, Baby Consuelo, Robertinho do Recife. These are records that changed my life. I see that DJs nowadays don't want to surprise people. I like to take risks. And if you don't do that, you will always be just another one. Me, I always wanted to be the man, the one, because back in the days I learned with the best.

What's your DJ setup today?

I play with a Pioneer S9 or S11, two Technics turntables MK7 or MK5g and the Ortofon VNL cartridges. And a fan!

And you play with Serato, right? Do you assign your cue points beforehand?

Yes, but not everything because sometimes it's boring.

How did you come up with the idea of upside-down scratching, one of your signature moves?

I was playing at home. My son was a baby, so I was holding him while spinning some records. Suddenly, he hit a soda pop lid that went straight in between the turntable's arm and the turntable itself, sticking them together. Moreover, the needle was spinning over and over the same section of the vinyl. So I decided to pivot the turntable little by little, and did this until it was in a vertical position while still playing that same section. This gave me my first thought of the possibility of scratching on decks in a different position. Then, years later, I flew from São Paulo to London and went to Brighton to play at the Concorde club. I started doing my scratch and pivoting the turntable more and more, and then it was upside down! The crowd went mental! It was funny.

Today you also play with the DJ software Phase, right? Did you migrate from vinyl to Phase or was there a step in between?

I used to play vinyls, and the new songs I wanted to play I ordered on dubplates. But dubplates are expensive, they are fragile and you need the right studio to make them. I was spending loads of money on this, so I gave Final Scratch a try. But it was awful, it had a lot of bugs. Shortly after, Serato was released. A friend of mine showed me and I saw that I could still play with turntables. Eventually I migrated to Serato.

I've been playing with Phase for like three, four years. And Phase is a really good tool. Quite often I play at stages where the booth monitors are not well regulated, and the stages tremble with the sound. So it's impossible to play with vinyl and regular turntables since the cartridge will tremble. That's a good thing about Phase: it reads the track straight from the computer. It's a great technology, essential for festivals and touring. But I prefer to play with vinyl.

You've seen DJ gear and technology go through many different changes. What change was the hardest one for you to make?

Changing from vinyl to Serato was the hardest one. I think I get more creative with vinyl, it's harder than Serato, and I like to challenge myself. With Serato you can have cue points, it's easier.

When you're DJing, are you on autopilot or do you go with the flow?

I never know what I'm playing at a gig. I go with the flow. For me, when I do that is when I surprise myself. And I like to see the crowd dancing when I surprise myself. It's a nice feeling.

What do you think are the main steps for a DJ to build a sequence?

I like to take people on a proper journey.

And what's the journey about? Textures, tempos, places?

The journey of a full spectrum of drum & bass. Not just hard, not just mellow. A little bit of everything to show people the full spectrum of the music. I like soulful house, but if the DJ drops some tech house in the middle of a soulful house set, I like it. And if suddenly it goes to a classic house track, I go crazy! Be creative. Today, it's easy to mix with CDJs. So you need to be creative in different ways.

Your DJ style is really energetic and performative. You're busy all the time.

It shows people I'm working! When they book me I ask for a minimum two-hour set, because I like to express myself. Also, there's so much music to play!

What do you think of the drum & bass scene today?

We're living a really good moment. Loads of good music, loads of good artists. There's this jungle revival, and I see some stuff that is OK. But we don't have the same feeling and sensation we had when we heard Roni Size and DJ Die's "Music Box" or Origin Uknown's "Valley Of The Shadows." These tracks are based on samples from that time!

The machines we use today also aren't the same.

It sounds kind of cliché, but when I listened to all these tracks from jungle, breakbeat, etc, I was thinking: how did they make these tracks? Future Sound of London, Papua New Guinea…You had, like, four seconds on an Akai to sample a sound that went on those tracks. You had to be so creative! That's why we had classics.

Do you see yourself as a DJ or a producer?

A DJ, straight away. DJing is my life. I love DJing. I wouldn't say that I love making music as much as I love DJing.

But when you DJ you're making music in a way, aren't you?

Yes, but what I don't like is that, today, it seems that everybody needs to make music. Every DJ needs to be a producer. It feels odd. And often, good producers are not good DJs. They don't know how to read the crowd. But the DJ could be a good producer. The DJ knows the right tempo, the right groove. If you take risks on the dance floor you can get booed. You have to build your confidence.

What is the future of DJing?

I have no idea. When people ask questions about the future, I have no clue. I don't think about the future, I only think about the present. I'm a DJ, but as a father I see there's too much going on today. Life is not easy. I never thought we could take a photo and listen to music on a device like this one, an iPhone. I think about the digital market, like Spotify and stuff like that as well. I listen to music that I have in my library, because on Spotify I don't find the versions I want to listen to. The new generations want shorter and shorter tracks.

A lot of songs today have a 15-second intro and jump right to the chorus.

We're talking about progression and taking people through a journey. How could one do this playing two-minute tracks? It's "impact music." And you don't have classics, so after three months you need a new track. Next one, next one.

Have you ever thought about stopping DJing because of the way the dance music landscape is changing?

Sometimes. I've never been tired of playing records, playing for the crowd. I get tired because of what being a DJ means nowadays. Like, quite a lot of people in Brazil think the visuals are more important than the music. For me, when music is less important than clothes or visuals, I think something is wrong. I like to believe people come to see the DJ and listen to the music. I remember playing at this festival in Brazil, Skol Beats, and the sound there was insane! The power was within the DJ. And now, what's the power? To be in a magazine? Fireworks? Why are pyrotechnics more important than music? This makes me very sad.

Also, there seems to be a competition now among DJs regarding who plays fastest. Not the fastest tracks, but who does the fastest transitions. Like 60 tracks in a one-hour-long set. What does it mean? No one knows what you're playing. They don't have time to listen, they don't have time to sing. And that's exactly why house music got big: because you needed to let the tunes breathe.

But today, the club community talks about things we didn't use to talk about back then, like mental health. Is mental health a thing you think about today?

Few people in music used to speak openly about it. I realized I was having trouble when I started to have insomnia. It was like ten years ago. It was a period of my life where I couldn't turn my brain off. I was thinking about music all the time, creating mixes in my mind, and I needed to take a rest. I also had some panic attacks—I couldn't get on the metro. People think we DJs have a glamorous life. And it's not like this. We have fears, we have weaknesses.

Is there any advice you would give to up-and-coming DJs?

My biggest advice is: if you're going through hard times, seek help. I went straight to the doctor. I had conversations about it with my mom, with my family, but I went to see the doctor. Look for help if you need it, because no one is alone.

Another advice I always give to beginner DJs is believe in yourself, believe in your dream and be authentic. Don't try to play like another DJ. Yes, you can look up to this or that DJ, but you must have your own style so you know what to do when you're behind the decks. Don't lose your own personality—be yourself.